“I CAN’T WAIT,” I yelled uncontrollably. My family and I were on our way to Skyzone for my birthday party and I was bouncing like I was already on a trampoline, hopping in my car seat. Skyzone is an indoor trampoline park with stuff like trampoline dodge ball, basketball, bounce and of course birthday parties. I was so happy that it was my birthday and even happier that I was literally going to jump for joy.When we got to Skyzone, there was one person who was already there. The other guests came one by one. The guests were my friends Chase, Paul, Sean, Tyler, Michael, Gavin, Aidan and Andrew. My sister Allie also came and brought her friend Lia.Now that you know who was in the story, let’s get to the dodge ball! The teams were me, Sean, Andrew, Gavin, Aidan and Allie against Paul, Chase, Tyler, Michael and Lia. Now that the teams are set, LET’S DO THIS!It started well. I bounced all over the place dodging balls as if they were bullets, dodging left and right. Every once in a while, I caught a ball and got the thrower out while getting a teammate back in at the same time. Once I made a catch so good, my team said that I should be MVP (most valuable player). Here is the story of that. There was a rough game and each team had one person left, on my team it was me and on the other team it was Paul. Paul is a good thrower, like he was a professional baseball pitcher, never missing a throw. He threw the ball in his hands at me and all of the sudden, I was in the zone. The out of nowhere I caught the ball. Every one including me was surprised. My team cheered and called me MVP of the team and I liked it. I felt like I was on top of the world!!The rest of the day was pretty normal. I got presents cake and pizza. I went home. I have to say it was the best party ever.

Dreams, those images, thoughts, and voices you experience in your mind whenever you go to sleep. Have you ever wondered what they are? No one really knows what they are or why we have them, but here are a few theories some scientists have about them. R.E.M. Sleep First let’s talk about what our body does when we dream. When we dream, we go through a stage of sleep known as the rapid eye movement, or R.E.M. for short. According to HowStuffWorks.com, “This is the deepest stage of sleep in the sleep cycle.” In this stage, your eyes move rapidly, (shocking I know) your heart rate and breathing is irregular, and your skeletal muscles like your arms and legs are unable to move. That last part may sound a bit frightening, but scientists think it is just your brain’s way of keeping you for acting out your dream like a play. It must work too, because scientists recorded that there is a 20 out of 25 percent chance that you will not act out your dreams.

Theories about Dreams Like I wrote in the intro, no one knows what dreams are, but there are a few theories about dreams, and here is one of them. One theory states that dreams are the brain’s attempt to make scene of what’s going on around us while we sleep. Have you ever had a dream that you were eating breakfast and when you woke up you smelled bacon cooking? That is an argument for this theory. The thing that was happening in your dream was actually happening in the real world. Another theory states that dreams are the brain’s way of organizing all the events that happened during the day. Some say that this is a way for the brain to build memories. One thing I found to be interesting is that some scientists at MIT did an experiment on some rats running through a maze, and while the rats were running through the maze, the scientists measured the brain waves of the rats. Later when the rats were sleeping, the scientists measured the brain waves again and the waves showed similarities between the waves when the rats were running through the maze. The scientists came to the conclusion that the rats were dreaming about running through the maze. I have my own theory that dreams are the brain’s way of being entertained while you sleep.Conclusion It is estimated that a person can have 100’000 dreams in a lifetime. No one really knows for sure what dreams are or why we have them, but scientists are working on this area a lot. Who knows? Maybe they will have a new theory before you even finish reading this sentence.Sources: HowStuffWorks.com About.com Webmd.com MIT.edu

Have you ever read the two books Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Wonder, well I’m going to describe the similarities and differences between Greg Heaffley from Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Jack Will from Wonder.First of all, I will describe some similarities between Greg and Jack. One thing they have in common is that they both like to play video games. For example, at the beginning of book four, Greg was sitting in front of the TV playing video games, and when Jack went to his friend August’s house to study, all he wanted to do was play on August’s Xbox. Another thing Greg and Jack have in common is that they both ask for help from their friends. For example, Greg takes advantage of his friend Rowley by making him pull Greg in a wagon to get up a hill to get to his house, and Jack copies off of August’s test answers. A final thing Greg and Jack have in common is that they both absolutely HATE school. For example, Greg hates school of his reckless class mates, and Jack hates school because it is boring for him.Now that we have those similarities out of the way, now we do differences. One difference between them is that Jack punched a kid for making fun of his friend, and I can’t imagine Greg hitting someone. Another difference between them is that Greg always runs from a fight and Jack stands up for himself in tough situations. A Final difference between them is that Greg befriends people to try and get popular and Jack befriends people to be a nice guy.Both of these Characters are great people, if they were real I’d love to meet them, but in the meantime, go read Wonder and/or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Some people never think before cutting down a tree; they just grab their axe, and go find a perfectly good tree and chop it down to the ground. They probably don’t know that the earth would become a polluted wasteland without trees; some of those trees could be home to small animals, and that we need trees to create oxygen for us to survive. People should stop cutting down trees because without trees, the earth would become a polluted wasteland. I’ve been to a small city with no trees around. There was a huge power plant in the distance, and a grey, cloudy sky. There was trash all over the ground, and the sound of police sirens in the distance. It was a place I never want to go back to. Another example is that trees add a little bit of color to the world. The small city with no trees, was 0% green. This might not be true, but it could be that most people throw recyclable materials into trash cans. More trash means more dumps, and more dumps mean more trees that have to be cleared away to make them. Another example of why I think people should stop cutting down trees is because those trees could be home for wildlife. Once, when I was hiking in the woods, I found a bird’s nest on the ground right next to a fallen tree. This is important because, some birds provide food, yet if their home is destroyed; try imagining Thanksgiving without turkey for dinner. Also, some animals eat animals that annoy us like bats eating mosquitoes. This is important because I don’t think anyone on earth would want to be ambushed by ten thousand mosquitoes. Finally, there are the bushy tailed tree climbers, the squirrels. The squirrels dig small holes so they can bury acorns to dig up for food in the winter. If the squirrels forget to dig up some of the acorns he buried, the acorns will grow into oak trees. This is important because the tree population won’t decline, it will increase because of the squirrel’s gardening skills. Finally, I think people should stop cutting down trees because we need trees to make oxygen for us to survive. The scientific term for plants creating oxygen is called photosynthesis. It would be even worse if people smoke and cut down a tree at the same time because one, the tree wouldn’t be able to produce oxygen anymore, two, the smoke will pollute the air, three, there is a huge chance that of a forest fire. One time, my friend Almir heard a news story about a man who caused a forest fire because he was smoking while cutting down a tree. Pretty much, no trees means no oxygen, and no oxygen means no life on earth. I used to think that you could breathe in any type of gas, but now I know that the only gas that is healthy to breathe in is oxygen. Now you see why people should stop cutting down trees, because the world would be a wasteland, animal’s homes will be destroyed, and trees make oxygen so we can breathe; so before you go cut down a tree, think about what you are going to do.

Dear Mom,I’ve been thinking that our lives stink right now; we are getting bulled by people bigger than us and always getting stuck in traffic. Well, want to know something that will make our lives better? A dragon will. Here are a few examples of why getting a dragon would be awesome. One example is that no one would mess with us because they would be afraid of the dragon. Imagine if someone was teasing me. I would call the dragon with a special dragon whistle. The dragon would swoop down to the playground and shoot one tiny little flare at the bully. He would run away in fear because he wouldn’t want to get burned like flaming hot dog. I would feel ten times safer with a dragon. Another example of it being epic to have a dragon is that we wouldn’t have to sit in 50 miles of traffic, because we would be flying OVER on our speedy dragon with style. Takeoff and landing aren’t really any different that riding in a helicopter. The dragon wouldn’t go higher than your average tree. The dragon could have a saddle that has a cover that you could pull up that acts like an umbrella when it rains. The only problem is that I wouldn’t know where to put any of our stuff if we had any. The dragon is superior to cars because there is not so much traffic in the air. Dad and I have been doing a lot of camping lately. Sometimes lighting a fire yourself can be dangerous. The dragon will light the fire for us with its hot breath. Now we do not have to spend money on a lighter or matches to light a fire. The dragon would help because it doesn’t take up any space in our packs. Having a dragon when going camping would be like having an extra friend with unlimited matches. This is just a fourth of the reasons why we need a dragon. Sincerely, your beloved son, Ricky

It was one of those days, when the rain comes down so hard it’s almost like an ocean without all the fish, and all you can hear are giant booms and all you can see are blinding flashes, the perfect day to play Minecraft. After I logged onto Kuledud3’s server, I immediately went straight to my favorite game in Minecraft, The Hunger Games, (basically the hunger games in Minecraft). I was the last player needed to start the round, so after about 20 seconds, I immediately scurried towards the chests hoping to get something good like an ender pearl or a golden sword from it. Yet, I was wrong; all it had was a wooden shovel, five bowls, and some roasted chicken. It was nice that I had food, and a weapon, but I knew without armor I was going to get my butt kicked. I thought to myself, how am I supposed to defeat my opponents with a wooden dirt digger? Not to mention the fact that a wood shovel is what a noob who dosen’t know a thing about Minecraft uses to mine diamonds! I saw my opponent running towards a sky scraper that looked like it could topple over at any minute. I saw him long enough to see he was equipped with a chain chest plate and a golden sword that could have been mine. Since that was my first time playing the hunger games in Minecraft, I decided the best thing to do would be to collect some more food if I want to survive. Sometimes, getting food can’t always be a piece of cake,(ba - dom, crash). First, you have to find the right type of animal to get food from, only cows and/or pigs. You can’t use sheep because they only give you wool, and you can’t use chickens because the meat is poisonous when its raw. Then it takes a long time to get the meat from the animal, unless you have a sword. After a really long time, I finally got 2 pork and 3 beef. As I adventured through the abandoned town, I came across a medium sized bridge that looked like the hulk smashed it in half. After doing parkour across the bridge, I found a chest with an iron sword with knock back 2 and an iron chest plate. I thought to myself, NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW! After the epic win on stuff, I scouted the sky for lightning, which marks other players. Cquincidentally, the lightning was directly above the starting place. Naturally, I went back the way I came, across the sliced bridge, passed the abandoned sky scraper, through a small forest, and arrived at the center for the final battle. My opponent swung his axe at my face as I gracefully dodged the menacing blade. I was really frightened as he swung uncontrollably so I had no choice but to fight back. I could see he was extremely determined to win, but I was stronger. With a single swing, he had disappeared as the chat bar said,”Wolfbone500 defeated asfjerome to win the hunger games in arena 1.” I’ve never felled better, after getting random useless stuff, adventuring off into the forest, finding a sword and chest plate, and defeating the other person, it was time for a rematch.

About 25 years ago, Patricia Wright flew to Madagascar (a small island near the Southern coast of Africa). She was looking for a species of primate that people thought was extinct, the bamboo lemur. She found, deep in the rainforest one group of the bamboo lemurs. She knew right away that this group was not safe since the forests were being cut down. She began talking to the government and asking them if they could make a safe park for the bamboo lemurs and other plant and animal species. The government said yes, yet they were not the only ones that they needed to cooperate with. They needed cooperation from the villagers whose homes might be inside the boundaries of the park. Patricia Wright and some other workers talked to villagers so they could agree about the habitat’s boundaries. They created a national park called Ranomafana. Now the lemurs have a safe home. I chose this story because I like protecting the environment that wild animals live in. This story shows the potential for one person to change the world for the better. I think that her change may last for so long that it might make it so that the bamboo lemurs will not be endangered anymore. That change may take years to happen. I like this story because it is not only about protecting animals, but it is also about protecting trees from being chopped down and turned into paper and pencils. These are some reasons why “A Place for Primates” helps the world and why I chose the article.

The insane howling and the spin tingling breeze continued as I scurried down the light-less, paranormal path. The only light were the second long, blinding, lightning strikes followed by terrifying, ear piercing booms of thunder. The rotten steps creaked with my every foot step. I thought to myself, do I really want to do this as I stared at the jagged edges of the tomb stone that looked like it was just waiting to hatch an undead creature at any second. I decided to just turn away from the ancient house, pretend like that never happened, and find a new house to get Halloween candy from.

The bell rang for gym, so I strapped on my rented roller blades, and skidded out of the room, into the hall way. On my way there, I dodged some of my friends like they were bullets and hollered, “What’s up guys,” but they didn’t hear me because I was going so fast, it was like I was being propelled by rockets, all I heard was them saying, “did you hear something?” I also passed by the gaming class which I can’t wait for in 6th period, the teacher says we will be playing minecraft. I also passed by the water slide that I will go on after gym, so I had my swim suit on to be prepared for that. I finally got to the gym, so I re placed my roller blades with sneakers and headed on in. The entire place was like a combination of a basketball court and a sky zone indoor trampoline park. “Today we are going to play basketball,”Mrs.Pensa said, “so grab a ball off the rack and get started.” Because I like to be challenged, I started to shoot from the basket mounted highest off the bouncy surface. I started to charge up a mega jump, and then I sprang up into the air and slammed the ball into the hoop. The impact of the ball hitting the surface of the trampoline was so hard, it launched back up and went reversed into the hoop. After a long session of dribbling balls, slam dunking, and being catapulted by trampolines, it was time for the water slides and I thought to myself, I am ready to get wet.

Check out some outstanding student work from the first homework project of the school year, All About Me. I've listed the requirements of the project here; below is what some especially creative students did with it.

Ricky's Predictions

Prediction: 10 yearsBoing, Splash

I just bounced off of one of the “big, red balls.” Paul made at scrunched up face at me after I made this big and glorious entrance in the water and I looked up from the pool. Paul and I were on one team and Sean and Bryce on another on the friends’ edition of the show “Wipeout.” The team who wins will get $50,000 and we need it. Since we’re still in college, we need the money for a college fund. We both have to finish the obstacle course and get a good time to move on. Paul is waiting for me at the other side of the “big balls”. Sean and Bryce are just ahead at the “Trippity, Skippity, Flippity, Do”. Most of the other teams are behind us. We catch up to Sean and Bryce. We make an attempt at the “Trippity” thing and we get wet. Paul and I make it to the finish pad with a time of 9 minutes 13 seconds. We move on. Sean and Bryce score a minute higher, but they move on too. At the end of the competition, they shall announce who wins $50,000. After all that pain from the obstacles and belly flops and after all that water, Paul and I win the 50 grand.

I want to be a LEGO designer. I study engineering at Tufts University. Paul, my best friend since first grade is studying robotics at Tufts. We live together in a dorm room right now, because we can’t afford a house. Sean and Bryce are at a college in Boston. Sean has a job to pay for college as a drive-through manager at MacDonald’s. Bryce and Sean both live at home right now and they take the train to school. I think we’re all going to graduate on time next year.

20 years:

I am 30 years and I live in Encino, California. California has weird cities. I work on a LEGO design team. One of my designs includes a LEGO Star Wars Republic Tank. I have wife and a golden retriever and two kids. Paul also works for the LEGO company and sometimes we play around with some of the bricks. We build random stuff and show it to the boss and see if they can become products. Another one of my creations is for the LEGO minecraft series called the Desert Temple. Paul has a dog too. Sean lives in Hollywood. He is a lights manager on movie sets for live action movies. Sean has a wife and two kids. Bryce still lives in Massachusetts, but has moved to Lowell. Bryce does animation for TV shows. He works for Nickelodeon but can work from home on his computer. We each have a nice job, a happy life and a nice pay amount for our work. I think it all came out well.

Student Workfrom theClass of 2014

Here you'll find artwork work and writing by students in the class of 2014. Click on a student's name below to see their portfolio of, or click a Z category to see everyone's work for that in-class assignment, or a Y category for homework projects.